This iconic venue will be missed by generations of Mancs – but there’s still cause for optimism, writes Greta Simpson
16:47, 11 Jul 2026Updated 16:47, 11 Jul 2026
The last two bars on Deansgate Locks will close for good on July 19(Image: Jason Roberts /Manchester Evening News)
Pounding music, aching feet, sweating through layers of foundation in a sea of people and a double vodka lemonade so sickly sweet, sour and strong it made your teeth ache. That’s what I remember about the former Ark nightclub.
It’s August 2017 and anyone who is anyone is in a PLT co-ord or spray-on skinny jeans and a graphic t-shirt – and most importantly they’re at the great A Level results day lock-in at Deansgate Locks.
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My abiding memories are pretty patchy (see above: double vodkas) but I remember being packed in like sardines in the basement while sweat dripped practically from the walls.
There was barely any room to dance, but that didn’t really matter, as it was really about seeing and being seen by virtually everyone from your sixth-form college for one last time before everyone was scattered around the country to uni like seeds in the wind.
I remember my feet feeling numb in my Primark heels. The security guards were brutal – heels only for women, and you’d be unceremoniously kicked out if you took them off even for a minute.
2am in the Ark toilets in 2017 – note the Oh Polly dress and makeup about an inch thick(Image: MEN )
I remember the welcome rush of cool air stepping out into the smoking area, leaning over the cold metal railing, chatting garrulously to my friends and taking pictures, while from beneath our feet came the trickling rush of the canal passing by far below…
Maybe I’m getting a bit too soppy about a nightclub. But that place, and the other clubs and bars that flanked it, formed a beloved nightlife haven for generations of Mancs.
So I was saddened – though not entirely surprised – to hear that the area’s last remaining tenants, Stonegate-owned Ark and Popworld, would be shutting their doors for the final time due to no longer being ‘commercially viable’.
Anyone who’s walked through the area on a Friday or Saturday night has seen the writing on the wall for a number of years, with venue after venue shutting its doors, leaving the place looking like a ghost town.
(Image: MEN)
Our Dianne Bourne has written a number of pieces on the Locks’ decline, with her article last year finding from a planning report that water ingress was ‘widespread’ in the Victorian structures and affecting their viability.
But it was, for a time, one of the most prominent nightlife spots in Manchester, attracting hordes of people young and old to its terraces and arches since they were converted in the late 1990s.
There was Ark, of course, an ultra-cool, colourful space playing the latest and greatest of pop and R&B. Lola Lo’s was fun too, all tropical-themed with exotic sounding cocktails and fake flower garlands.
Then there was the exterior scene: revellers queueing on the wooden bridges over the canal, women tottering dangerously on their towering heels, worse-for-wear groups arguing and munching chips as they waited for their Uber to crawl along Whitworth Street…
A busy night in Revolution in 2014(Image: Publicity Picture)
I didn’t go to the Locks much after that summer. They were all quite swep-up places, and I’ve never been great at heels.
When I go out I want to dance, not be in pain, so Factory off Oxford Road (the ground floor ideally) where you could two-step comfortably in a pair of New Balances was more my jam.
Nowadays, I’m more partial to Deansgate and Peter Street – but still I hold a soft spot for the Locks, and I know I won’t be the only one sad to see them go.
Baa Bar, the Sugar Lounge, Loaf, Sakura, El Diablo, these were the site of every hen do, work party, freshers’ night, and results’ day celebration – and regularly graced by Manchester United players and Love Island stars.
Where are all these events happening now? Are they just not happening at all, as we, as all the statistics are telling us, are drinking less, going out less?
We must be, with inflation hitting everyone’s wallet, and pubs and clubs closing their doors hand over fist. And Covid can’t have helped as we all got used to ‘from-home’ life.
(Image: Nathan Cox)
A long taxi or train journey to town, queueing to get in, fighting your way to the front of the bar, and having a heart attack when you look at your bank balance the next morning doesn’t sound so appealing when you’ve got takeaways on speed dial and a whole universe of on-demand entertainment at the touch of a button.
But the last few times I’ve been out in Manchester – Stevenson Square, Peter Street, Deansgate, Store Street, Oxford Road – what I’ve seen doesn’t quite match that narrative.
Peter Street, on any given Friday or Saturday, can pretty much be relied upon to be heaving. GMP have their work cut out for them trying to contain the streams of people pouring out of Dirty Martini, Revolucion de Cuba and Albert’s Schloss – many of whom are still dressed to the nines in chic outfits and heels like the good old days.
For those who want to dance, ticketed events at Idra, Ambers, Loft and the Warehouse Project will regularly sell out under incredible demand. I had to set multiple alarms just to snag a ticket to TeeDee in May this year.
An event at the Warehouse Project pictured in 2024(Image: Jody Hartley)
I haven’t ventured into the Northern Quarter or Spinningfields much, but by all accounts they have a popping nightlife scene of their own. And if you’re not in the Freemount on Oldham Street by 11pm, good luck to you, because there will be a queue halfway down the block.
There’s more Irish pubs than you can shake a stick at. There’s the Disco Spoons. There’s Terrace, and Duke’s 92. Simply put, I don’t think the outlook for nightlife in Manchester is as bleak as we might think. Every time I go out, I see more evidence of it.
I know Ark and the like will be missed. A Manchester councillor has vowed he will approach the site owners for answers over it’s future, telling the MEN ‘we can’t let it go derelict and die’ – so maybe there’s life in the old Locks yet.
But whatever happens, despite the odds, I still feel optimistic. I think people still want to dance – just possibly not quite so often, and in slightly more comfortable shoes.